Malaria remains a major health problem in many parts of the world. In regions where it is endemic, effective treatment and eradication is often compromised by lack of access to rapid, accurate and affordable diagnosis since, unfortunately, the best diagnostic tools currently available require a laboratory environment. Even in Europe the number of cases and fatalities increases year on year reflecting the increasing preference of Europeans to holiday in malarial prevalent areas coupled with a reluctance to take anti-malarial prophylaxes. Native Europeans have no immunity so that without early diagnosis infection can, and often does, have rapidly fatal consequences. This situation is moreover only likely to worsen as global warming is now predicted to facilitate the spread of malaria to areas previously free of the disease including southern Europe.